Father Peter Jardine's sermon for Sunday, the Fourth Sunday After Easter
at the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ottawa

Veni, Creator Spiritus

Jesus said unto His disciples, Now I go my way to him that sent me. ….Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

There, in the Garden of Gethsemane, before his betrayal, Our Lord talked to his Apostles, at once teaching them the mysteries of the Trinity and, out of his great love for them, giving them such comfort for their own hours of need. In fact the first task of the Holy Spirit was to enlighten the Apostles. Jesus said, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. The Spirit would enter into a very intimate relationship with the Apostles, guide them, give them the knowledge they needed and comfort them so they could bear the burden.

I am struck once more by the genius of the lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer. Here in Eastertide, a time when our thoughts should be filled with the vast Love of God, exemplified in our Risen Lord, the Gospel reminds us that we will never be left alone – the help of God is always there for us. For the Holy Spirit would have another task, that of spreading the salvation of Jesus through the world.

We live in this sinful world. We live with our sinful natures, we struggle with them constantly. The Holy Spirit, Jesus says, will reprove the world of sin. That is, the Spirit will show us and convince us of our sinful natures because without that conviction of sin, there can be no incentive to overcome sin. Job number one is to recognise and acknowledge the problem. Without that we will go our merry, human ways, creating havoc around us, and within our souls, and plunging ever nearer to the cliff.

At first glance, these words of Jesus sound more than a little off putting. Why do I want to spend my time investigating my sinful nature? Why do I even want the Holy Spirit to lead me in that direction?

Hey, I get a kick out of misleading my boss – who is a total jerk and deserves it. What does a little lie here and there matter anyway.

I get satisfaction from yelling obscenities at the motorist who cuts me off. Why shouldn’t I get angry, it’s only natural. That idiot got in my way.

I enjoy flipping through Playboy and leering at the pictures of naked women. I enjoy my lust, because I am a sexual animal and I am proud of it.

I just love ignoring the outstretched hand of the beggar on the street. After all, I have to be better than him, in my fine leather shoes and my fancy clothes; I must be doing it right and he is so obviously doing it wrong. He deserves my contempt.

I am proud of what I am and have accomplished. I put myself through university. I got this great job. I paid for that flashy car. I did it all by myself. I did it my way, so don’t tell me I need God. I doubt God even exists.

At which point we may, if we care to listen, hear the gentle voice of our Mediator and Advocate say, I rest my case.

We do need the Holy Spirit to convince us of our sin. But more than that, we need to accept this work of the Comforter for what it is, the Grace of God. Then we have nothing to fear from our Lord’s words and we can open our hearts to the Holy Spirit and welcome him in.

We are not being asked to wallow in our sin. On the contrary, we are being offered freedom from it. Sin is not to be wallowed in, it is to be faced and grasped and expunged from our very being. Our Lord’s Resurrection breaks the bonds of slavery to sin and frees us to walk the joyful path of living in his service. We are guided by the Spirit to acknowledge our sin precisely so that we can leave that sin at the foot of the cross and move on without its bonds and its burden. We are guided to recognise that sin so that we can give it a name and when temptation comes, we can turn from it and live our lives in Jesus, Our Risen Lord.

Thomas a Kempis wrote,

Bethink you often of the saying,
“The eye is never satisfied with what it glances at,
The ear is never filled with what it hears”
And try to wean your hearts from loving what you see,
And turn to what you cannot see;
For they who follow where the senses lead, will spoil the conscience,
And lose the kindly touch of God.

Recognising and acknowledging our sinful nature is Grace and from that Grace we can allow the Holy Spirit to continue his work within us, that of convincing us of righteousness.

What a huge work that is. It involves learning what Jesus taught; it requires understanding of what Jesus taught; it calls for obedience to his commandments; it means becoming a Christian in every detail and in the most profound sense of that word. Such work is far beyond the reach of human beings. It is, it can only be the work of God the Holy Spirit acting in and through us. It is Grace and thus is God glorified through us.

Each and every time, with the courage of faith, we allow the Holy Spirit to help us to overcome temptation, to commit some act of genuine charity, to worship and adore our Lord, we glorify God.

So we do not lie to the boss, because even if it does little harm to the boss, that lie corrodes our own soul. Jesus said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man. Mark 7.20-23. And God hates it, Lying lips are abomination to the Lord, says Proverbs 12:22, but they that deal truly are his delight.

We should not get angry with the motorist who cuts us off. Indeed, leaving aside righteous anger, we should not get angry, period. St. Paul, in Ephesians 4.31 wrote, …And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you. Anger sideswipes the work of the Spirit within us. It creates a barrier between us and Him and blocks the lifegiving work of God the Holy Spirit.

It is not OK to flip through Playboy, or to avail ourselves of any other source of stimulation for our sexual lusts. Jesus said, …whosever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart. Mt. 5.28. Also, as St. John wrote in his first letter, For all that is in this world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. Our responsibility, our joy, is to seek the Grace of God to live our lives in Him. The Comforter is sent to help us to do exactly that.

We can not ignore the outstretched hand of the beggar on the street, for in the eyes of God we are not one tiny bit better. Jesus taught us that what we do for the least among us, we do for him. Mt. 25.40, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. The Comforter will lift the scales from our eyes to see Jesus in the poorest of the poor. We never know what treasures we will find there.

We can not afford to be proud of what we think we have done or accomplished, for if we have done or accomplished anything, it is because of the gifts God gave us. As Jesus told Pilate, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above:.. Everything comes from God and our job is to call upon the Holy Spirit to guide us so that what we do and what we accomplish is in accordance with God’s will. Otherwise we are accomplishing nothing except the selfish waste of God’s gifts.

With the Holy Spirit living and working in us, we can live our lives free from fear, which is indeed, the message of the Resurrection. Death has no sting and the Comforter in convincing us of righteousness, will convince us of that.

The prince of this world is judged, Jesus said. God will break the power of Satan. Satan will be subdued before Christ and in this world the Holy Spirit will accomplish that for us, when we open our hearts to him and, through the Grace of God, allow him to work within us.

In our Lord’s death upon the Cross we have the knowledge of the victory over sin. In our Lord’s Resurrection we have the knowledge of the victory over death. And in our Lord’s sending of the Holy Spirit, we have the knowledge of his constant help in seeking and learning and living in the way and the life and the truth.

Veni, Creator Spiritus!

Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
And lighten with Celestial fire;
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost they sevenfold gifts impart:

Thy blessed unction from above
Is comfort, life and fire of love,
Enable with perpetual light
The dullness of our blinded sight.

Peter Jardine +
Easter IV, 2004